(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to agriculture and more particularly to an apparatus for installing an irrigation system.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
There are three main types of irrigation. The oldest and simplest form of irrigation is surface irrigation in which water is applied by surface flows and is applicable to farm lands having a variety of soil types. However, surface irrigation is relatively inefficient and is not appropriate for steep slopes or sandy soils. A higher efficiency irrigation type is over-head sprinkler irrigation with which an “artificial rainfall” is produced from an array of sprinkler heads mounted on an above ground framework of water pipes. While sprinkler irrigation is more efficient than surface irrigation, it is not sufficiently effective for loose arid soils. Drip irrigation including a buried moisture barrier is a more appropriate type of irrigation for loose arid soils. Drip irrigation delivers water at very low pressure through a soaker hose that has a plurality of sub-millimeter holes that allows water to drip near plant roots. The preferred moisture barrier is a moisture impermeable plastic sheet or film that is buried beneath the soaker hose.
Up to now, the main disadvantage of drip irrigation with a buried moisture barrier has been the high cost of installation. The high cost is due to the effort needed to cut a trench in the earth combined with the need to bury the moisture barrier. Past attempts of developing implements for installing drip irrigation systems with buried moisture barriers have been largely unsuccessful due to their mechanical complexity. One such attempt is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,309,875 to Niederwemmer. The Niedewemmer patent discloses a relatively complex mobile vehicle that includes a bucket chain, rotary digger, or the like for excavating a trench to bury a moisture barrier in the form of a plastic film. The mobile vehicle includes screens and conveyor belts for separating soils into various particle sizes before discharging the excavated soil overtop the plastic film and a soaker hose that are unspoolable from a plastic film carrying spool and a soaker hose carrying spool. Due to an undesirable level of mechanical complexity of the mobile irrigation installation systems such as disclosed by the Niederwemmer patent, a need remains for an irrigation installation implement that is less complex than prior art devices.